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Camille Speaks!: Camille Paglia on Rush Limbaugh
Salon ^ | October 29, 2003 | Kerry Lauerman

Posted on 10/30/2003 9:44:33 AM PST by billorites

Look, I am a longtime listener of Rush Limbaugh because I'm a fan of AM radio. I've listened to radio since childhood. I was in anguish for a week over what was happening to Rush. It began with the flap over his remarks about our Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb being "overrated" because he's black -- an ill-advised intrusion of racial controversy into a tightly scripted jock show that wasn't the right forum for political debate. Then within days, news broke of the National Enquirer's cover story on Rush's abuse of prescription pain medication. The news stunned his fans. For me, it was almost like when Diana had her accident or when Natalie Wood was found drowned off Santa Catalina. That's the level of deep emotional upset that admirers of Rush had -- not because his private life contradicted his public code but because of the revelation of the desperate, agonizing subterfuges to which he had been driven by his addiction.

Now, I do not agree with Rush on most political issues -- I voted for Ralph Nader! And I definitely don't agree with him on Iraq. But Rush transformed the media landscape in America. He resurrected AM radio. From coast to coast, AM radio is buzzing and vibrant because of what Rush did. He is a master broadcaster, a master of the microphone. Anyone who is a true student of media should respect his achievements.

Is his show what it was, say, in the early '90s? No. When anyone makes it big and is suddenly hobnobbing with the rich and famous, of course he or she no longer has that fire in the belly. The outsider becomes the insider. This happened to Howard Stern too. But I've been saying to friends for several years that something was happening with Rush's show. There was less air space and free-form rumination, less comedy and satire. At times, it felt like he was going through the motions, working himself up into a partisan fever because he thought his listeners expected it. I just assumed he was relaxing more, playing golf -- which he deserved!

In the beginning of his career, Rush was an odd character who did nothing but devour the news all day long and give his take on it -- and his audience kept expanding. Since Bush was elected, the show turned too much in an Us vs. Them direction -- "us" being conservative Republicans. But Rush's fan base crosses party lines. I now see that it was the drugs that were affecting the show. Rush was functioning amazingly well, but he was losing his original wide range of ideas.

When the McNabb flap broke, Rush could have caught himself and demonstrated his genuine erudition in football -- which he's shared with his audience for years. But suddenly his isolation became dramatically clear. Where was his staff? Callers to his show challenged him, asking who exactly in the media had ever overrated McNabb? Rush kept saying vaguely, "the Philadelphia media," and I winced. The Philadelphia media have fried McNabb! For heaven's sake, a radio star here even took a mob up to New York to boo McNabb on the day he was drafted! McNabb is personally very popular, but his uneven skills as a quarterback are constantly being hashed over here.

Days passed when Rush should have been getting research data from his staff -- chapter and verse to support his position. His inability to manage basic crisis control amazed me. But through all of that public abuse and exposure, he emerged not diminished but with the dimension of a major Hollywood star, like Judy Garland, who attained semi-divinity through her drug overdoses and suicide attempts. It's as if Rush stepped over from pugilistic political commentator to mysterious, tortured myth in just a few days.

When Democratic candidates like Dean attack Rush, they don't realize how they are alienating millions of people. By blaming the messenger, all they're doing is showing that the Democrats have no answer to the policy dilemmas of our day. And that Newsweek cover story hatchet job on Rush was a total disgrace! After two years of intense debate about whether the American media is biased toward liberals, for Newsweek to produce such a pathetically underreported piece of crap is mind-boggling. Rumor has it that Newsweek stringers had gathered more positive comments about Rush's career that were junked by the top editors.

Of course the newsmagazines never honestly covered Rush Limbaugh as a major force in American media and politics since the early '90s, but Newsweek finally put him on the cover for his drug scandal. That's fine -- it's breaking news -- but then shouldn't they have interviewed some longtime Rush fans who know the show? But who do they call? Maureen Dowd -- that catty, third-rate, wannabe sorority queen. She's such an empty vessel. One pleasure of reading the New York Times online is that I never have to see anything written by Maureen Dowd! I ignore her hypertext like spam for penis extenders.

The nerve of Newsweek to be portraying Rush as a "schlub" -- as if that wouldn't describe half the big enchiladas in Hollywood! In 1992, at the glittering 25th anniversary black-tie party for "60 Minutes" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I dined at a small table with Rush Limbaugh. He was a jovial, witty, commanding figure who offered me a cigar. The distorted portrait of him in Newsweek was vile and meretricious.

< snip >


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: camillepaglia; limbaugh; rush
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She also has some delightfully catty things to say about Wes Clark, Howard Dean, etc.
1 posted on 10/30/2003 9:44:33 AM PST by billorites
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To: billorites
his remarks about our Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb being "overrated" because he's black

THAT IS NOT WHAT HE SAID!!!!!

2 posted on 10/30/2003 9:48:02 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I will defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Born Conservative
ping
3 posted on 10/30/2003 9:48:15 AM PST by Pan_Yans Wife (You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.)
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To: Puppage
You beat me to it, but what has the truth got to do with it?!?
4 posted on 10/30/2003 9:50:34 AM PST by fml
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To: billorites
It was silly and somewhat goofy for Rush to take a swan dive over a mere Philadelphia Eagles quarterback.

Paglia has some valid points. Maybe she should sit in as a guest host for Limbaugh's Radio Show. That would answer some of the media jive floating around.

5 posted on 10/30/2003 9:50:44 AM PST by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: fml
So what did Rush say and what did he mean?
6 posted on 10/30/2003 9:52:30 AM PST by lelio
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To: billorites
So who is Kerry Lauerman? Did she write the article or did Camile Paglia?
7 posted on 10/30/2003 9:52:38 AM PST by 11th Earl of Mar
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To: fml
Like Hitler...if you repeat a lie often & loud enough......
8 posted on 10/30/2003 9:52:48 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I will defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: billorites
Gotta love Paglia's intellectual HONESTY. A straight shooter from the word "GO".
9 posted on 10/30/2003 9:54:17 AM PST by PISANO
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To: billorites
I just hope RUSH just hurries and comes back. I sure do miss him.

10 posted on 10/30/2003 9:55:48 AM PST by Tank-FL (Keep the Faith - GO VMI Beat Costal Carolina)
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To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
Maybe she should sit in as a guest host for Limbaugh's Radio Show.

Did it work for Chris Matthews? I recall he hosted Rush's show once...I don't remember any more times than that.

11 posted on 10/30/2003 9:58:43 AM PST by CanisMajor2002 (The UN is a sophomoric overnourished egalitarian piglet.)
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To: billorites
She also has some delightfully catty things to say about Wes Clark, Howard Dean, etc.

Link! Link!

12 posted on 10/30/2003 10:00:44 AM PST by Howlin
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
"So who is Kerry Lauerman? Did she write the article or did Camile Paglia? "

Kerry Lauerman conducted a phone interview with Camille.

This is a brief excerpt of the article dealing with Rush. The entire thing's online at Salon.

13 posted on 10/30/2003 10:00:46 AM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: PISANO
Golden Thread featuring two of my favorite public intellectuals.
14 posted on 10/30/2003 10:02:24 AM PST by NutCrackerBoy
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To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
One of the most enjoyable hours I have EVER seen on TV was a Washington Journal show with Camille and Bay Buchanan! I was shocked at how much they agreed on!
15 posted on 10/30/2003 10:02:32 AM PST by Howlin
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To: Puppage
Your right!

Limbaugh said that McNabb was over rated and that he was getting undeserved credit for the team's past performance.

Funny thing, until last Sunday Limbaugh was looking prescient. I still haven't heard that McNabb is an H2O walker this season.
16 posted on 10/30/2003 10:04:12 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine's brother (Free Republic has got our Troops' six)
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To: Howlin
Link! Link!

Requires subscription.

17 posted on 10/30/2003 10:04:39 AM PST by NutCrackerBoy
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To: Howlin
Camile Paglia is one of the reasons I turned right. I read Vamps & Tramps and her essays on Salon and thought she made ALOT of sense. I think she's great.
18 posted on 10/30/2003 10:05:20 AM PST by FeliciaCat
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To: Puppage
That's exactly right. And no one has said squat about the world series players comment on ESPN "Rome is Burning" show. When commenting on the Boston/Yankees brawl the commentator (not the host) said (may no be verbatim) "Look at their last names: Garcia, Ramirez, Rivera. These guys overthrow their governments every three years. No wonder they can't control themselves." Haven't heard anyone called a racist for that comment.
19 posted on 10/30/2003 10:05:53 AM PST by ampat
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To: Howlin
And many's the time that Rush would quote something Camille said or even read from articles she had written.
20 posted on 10/30/2003 10:08:35 AM PST by NTegraT
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